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The ARRL Board of Directors approved a motion to amend the DXCC Rules, when it met January 19-20. Section II, Subsection 1 of the DXCC Rules now will include a new Subsection (d): The entity has a separate IARU member society and is included on the US State Department Independent States in the World. In fact, the Republic of Kosovo (Z6) has been added to the DXCC List of current entities, increasing the total number of current DXCC entities to 340. The addition of Kosovo raises to 331 the required number of current entities confirmed to qualify for DXCC Honor Roll; Top of Honor Roll is 340. DXCC award accounts are being tabulated to reflect the change.

the (possibly) World's Smallest Fully-Featured CW Keyer with Computer Support

This keyer, based on Arduino design, employs the famous K3NG code. It can be used with any Windows/Linux/Mac logging or contesting software with Winkeyer USB (K1EL) support. The credit & big kudos goes to Anthony Good (Goody), K3NG, who did the tremendous work. It is a very small unit (outer dimensions 45 x 45 x 18.6 mm, appx. 1.8 x 1.8 x 0.73 in) which does not have any fancy options (a zillion of buttons, psychedelic flashing LED lights or cockatoo colored displays). It is intended for regular CW work and contesting with computer support, most of functions should be adjusted and operated via the computer. For standalone work an acoustic menu in command mode is used. Otherwise, only speed control knob and a mini LED indicating the command mode is on the front panel, nothing more. See here.

Many friends asking me to comment the new ZACH Iambic Magnetic paddle which I am now using. So, my trusty N2DAN Mercury has now a longer vacation and the new ZACH became my daily-paddle. It is very easy to adjust, much easier then the Merc. And once adjusted, I can forget what, where and why...

Many well respected operators offered their opinions on call/QRP. It is considered sometimes as trying to gain unfair advantage, sometimes as deliberate altering of an official callsign but the majority considered it as counter-productive practice hurting both the user and his QSO partner. There is a significant number of high-profile DXpeditioners and contesters avoiding working, logging and QSLing call/QRP users.

For many radio amateurs, it’s the end of an era: Rockwell Collins, which designed and manufactured mechanical filters for more than two generations of hams, has discontinued the filters’ production.

The company posted on its website: “Over the past several years, we have seen a dramatic reduction in demand for narrowband analog filters. Due to this and other economic reasons, Filter Products will be discontinuing its mechanical filter products in the near future.”

The company acknowledged that the filters have since been eclipsed by digital signal processing, and this was a significant factor in its decision. Highly popular mainstays for many hams, the mechanical filters were valued for being able to achieve bandwidths of between 0.05 percent and 5 percent, with input and output transducers converting the electrical signal to and from mechanical vibrations. Rockwell Collins has not yet announced a date for the final production run.